Supreme Court quashes Kerala HC order granting anticipatory bail to Nambi Narayanan case accused

The apex court order on Friday follows a series of appeals filed by the CBI challenging anticipatory bail granted to former police officers accused of being part of a conspiracy to frame ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan in an espionage case in 1994.

The Supreme Court on Friday, December 2, 2022 quashed the orders passed by the Kerala High Court in 2021 granting  anticipatory bail granted to probe officers who framed ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan in an 1994 espionage case.

A Bench of Justices M.R. Shah and C.T. Ravikumar sent the matter back to the Kerala High Court to decide the pleas afresh.

“All these appeals allowed. Impugned orders granting anticipatory bail passed by HC are quashed and set aside. All matters are remitted back to the HC to be decided afresh on it own merits. This court had not observed anything on merits for either of the parties.

“It is ultimately for the HC to pass orders. We request the HC to decide the anticipatory bail applications at the earliest preferably within four weeks from date of this order,” the Bench said.

The CBI had claimed the possibility of a “larger conspiracy involving foreign powers”, which had stalled the technology to develop the cryogenic engine by decades. The agency had challenged the bail granted to the accused persons at the very “threshold” of its investigation.

“The frame-up led to the arrest of scientists. The technology for the cryogenic engine was deliberately stalled for at least two decades... May be a larger conspiracy involving foreign powers... Grant of anticipatory bail at the threshold may harm the investigation,” Additional Solicitor-General S.V. Raju, for the CBI, had submitted at an earlier hearing.

The Kerala High Court, while granting anticipatory bail to Jayaprakash, Thampi, Vijayan and Sreekumar, had observed that there was “not even a scintilla of evidence” to suggest that the former police officers and intelligence officials were influenced by any foreign power so as to induce them to hatch a conspiracy to falsely implicate the scientists with the intention to stall the activities of the ISRO regarding the development of cryogenic engine.